Ansip: border agreement is needed both to Estonia and Russia

Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said at the government's press conference on Thursday that both sides need the Estonian-Russian border agreements and the Estonian side is ready to reopen talks, LETA/Delfi reports.

"The border agreements are
necessary – they are necessary for Estonia, they are necessary for
Russia," said Ansip. "Based on that knowledge we signed them in 2005.
Now that the Russian side has withdrawn its signature, the agreements haven’t
come in force“.

Ansip said that regulated relations
between states are better than non-regulated relations.

"If we don’t communicate to
each other, then we are unlikely to get these agreements concluded," said
Ansip. "If the other side is ready for open communication, Estonia will
make no obstacles to that communication".

"There is no reason for us to
start border talks from scratch," said Ansip. "The question has been
in interpreting the preamble and the consistency of the state".

On September 1, Russian foreign
minister Sergei Lavrov said that
Moscow is ready to restore talks over the border agreement but "without
surprises".

Estonian and Russian foreign
ministers signed the border agreement between Estonia and Russia in May 2005.
The Riigikogu ratified the agreement that summer but added a preamble. Less
than a month later Russia announced that it will withdraw its signature from
the border agreement claiming that the preamble that Estonia added enables to
present territorial claims against Russia. Estonia has repeatedly said that it
doesn't have any territorial claims against Russia.

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